Re: Centripetal F from friction

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Perhaps the fictitious back wheel should not be in the middle.
It should be at the same distance from the center of the circular
path as the front wheel. The trouble is that I do not know
where the center of the circle is.

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> Is this OK?
> A tricycle is moving along a straight line on a horizontal floor.
> All three wheels are parallel. Then the front wheel is turned
> by 10 or 20 degrees and the path becomes circular. The wheels
> roll without sliding or skidding. What is the radius of the path?
>
> My guess is that R does not depend on the speed. To estimate
> the radius I would replace (on my drawing only) the back
> wheels by a single wheel in the middle. Then I would say
> that the plane of the back wheel is tangent to the circle and
> the plane of the front wheel is tangent to the circle. Knowing
> the distance between the centers of two wheels I can trace
> the circle and determine R (or derive the formula for R).
> Would this produce a good prediction? Probably not. Why not?
>
> I think that a tricycle would be easier to analyze than a bicycle
> because there is no tilting.
> Ludwik Kowalski